Georgia Tennis: Montgomery, Smith and Wagland Claim ITA Masters Bids
After winning another SEC Championship and finishing the 2015 season ranked eighth , Georgia tennis sends three competitors to the select Oracle ITA MAsters.
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The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced Georgia tennis team members Austin Smith, Ben Wagland and Wayne Montgomery will compete in the inaugural Oracle/ITA Masters September 18-20.
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The Oracle/ITA Masters, the first national collegiate championship of the 2015-16 season, will be held at the Malibu Club in Malibu, CA. Smith and Wagland will compete in doubles, and Smith and Montgomery will compete in singles.
The select tournament features only16 men’s and women’s singles players and eight men’s and women’s doubles teams. Singles champions will earn automatic bids to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship.
Smith, a first team All-SEC pick in 2015, also named to the SEC All-Tournament Team, ended the year with a 27-11 singles record and a number 27 national singles ranking. A senior from Cumming, GA, Smith was 8-1 in the SEC.
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Montgomery is the 2015 SEC Freshman of the Year with a team high final ranking of 26. He was named first team All-SEC, SEC All-Freshman, led the Dawgs with 32 singles wins, and was second on the team with a combined 51 singles and doubles wins.
Smith and Wagland finished the 2014-15 season with an 18-4 doubles record, including a 16-3 mark against ranked opponents. The pair had wins against doubles teams ranked 1, 2, 4, 6, 11 (twice), 12 and 16, and they are the seventh Georgia tandem in the last 15 years to finish the year ranked in the top-five nationally. They reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championship as the No. 1 overall seed.
Men’s singles competitors for the Oracle/ITA Masters include Axel Alvarez (Oklahoma), Ryan Shane (Virginia), Julian Lenz (Baylor), Quentin Monaghan (Notre Dame), Andrew Harris (Oklahoma), Nicolas Alvarez (Duke), Dominik Koepfer (Tulane), Romain Bogaerts (Wake Forest), Jared Hiltzik (Illinois), Ronnie Schneider (North Carolina), Cameron Norrie (TCU), Guillermo Nunez (TCU), Max Tchoutakian (Baylor), Felipe Soares (Texas Tech), Smith and Montgomery (UGA).
The doubles teams include Luca Corinteli/Shane (Virginia), Boris Arias/Jordan Daigle (LSU), Benjamin Lock/Marco Nunez (Florida State), Lenz/Tchoutakian (Baylor), Alex Lawson/Monaghan (Notre Dame), Guilherme Hadlich/Garbiel Sidney (Pepperdine), Eddy Covalschi/Josh Hagar (Notre Dame) and Smith/Wagland (UGA).